The extracon industry is tradionally one of the most cricized by various stakeholders for its negaveimpacts on communies and the environment. This RepRisk special report focuses on mining companiesand their projects in 2011.

In order of ranking, the 10 Most Controversial Mining Companies of 2011 were:

health and safety standards, which resulted in toxic emissions and accidents that have caused injuries,

fatalies or serious illness.The negave stakeholder senment captured throughout 2011 by RepRisk indicates that it may be in acompany’s best interests to heed the warning signals and proacvely address the environmental, socialand governance issues raised by various acvist groups, employees, governments, shareholders, andcommunies. For some companies, such as Vedanta and Rio Tinto, mining operaons were so heavilycricized that acvists disrupted their Annual General Meengs, calling on the companies to put a stopto alleged human rights abuses near their work sites and improve their stance on the environment. ForNewmont and Minas Buenaventura, the outcry surrounding their Conga Mine led to the suspension of the project in late November.BHP Billiton aracted a great deal of NGO cricism for its allegedly widespread environmental destruc-on and human rights abuses. Following Glencore’s Inial Public Oering in 2011, public and media in-terest in the company’s acvies increased and it was heavily cricized for operaons in Africa and SouthAmerica. Alpha Natural Resources’ purchase of Massey Energy saw its RepRisk Index soar, making it themost controversial miner of the year.Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold faced allegaons of human rights abuses, parcularly in Papua NewGuinea where its subsidiary was accused of perpetuang the abuse of workers by paying police to guardits Grasberg Mine. It was further accused of contaminang water bodies with heavy metals from minetailings. Barrick Gold had to contend with mulple claims of sexual abuse by security sta, and AngloAmerican faced ongoing lawsuits by former mineworkers in South Africa, who aributed their illnessesto having worked for the company.

RepRisk® is a registered trademark RepRisk AG, February 20122 of 13

1. ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES INC

Alpha Natural Resources shot to the top of the most controversial mining companies list following itspurchase of Massey Energy in June 2011. Massey has been targeted for the controversial pracce of mountaintop removal mining, as well as alleged polluon, safety problems, poor employment, and fraudissues. Crics of mountaintop removal claim that it scars the landscape, threatens wildlife and contami-nates drinking water.Massey had a well-documented history of problems prior to its purchase by Alpha Natural Resources,including the infamous explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in April 2010 that resulted in at least25 miner fatalies. Since the incident, the company allegedly received over 1000 citaons from the USMining Safety and Health Administraon. Furthermore, the invesgaon reportedly found that Masseyhad kept two sets of books to hide safety problems from authories. The company’s security chief al-legedly obstructed the invesgaon by ordering thousands of documents to be destroyed and nofyingmine ocials about the arrival of government inspectors. He was later found to have also commiedperjury. Alpha Natural Resources has since agreed to pay approximately USD 210 million to resolve civiland criminal penales for the repeated violaons.Massey and its subsidiary, Rawl Sales & Processing, were accused by West Virginia residents of contami-nang aquifers and wells with coal slurry. Approximately 600 plains claimed that 1.4 billion gallons of toxic slurry had been pumped into underground mines between 1978 and 1987. According to the legalacon, this resulted in a wide range of health issues, including cancer and chronic gastrointesnal disor-ders, in surrounding communies. Around 350 lawsuits were reportedly launched and several are sll inprogress. The companies have already paid out USD 35 million in selement fees.In Logan County, West Virginia, environmental groups have challenged the permit granted to Alpha sub-sidiary Highland Mining’s Reylas mine. In Appalachia, residents claimed that the company operates out-side the law and invests signicant funds into lobbying bodies in order to inuence the polical systemand ght government regulaon on mining safety and the environment. There are further allegaonsthat waste and dust emissions are not eecvely controlled and that operaons pollute waterways andgroundwater.